Eagle Wings and Snake Fangs: Year of the Green Girl
by fishstic
Summary: Frex was appalled when Elphaba got her Hogwarts letter. He always preached about how evil magic was. But he didn't see the harm in letting her go, it's what Melena would have wanted. After being abandoned at King's Cross, 11yo Elphaba learns that there's more to Hogwarts than just a school of magic, and perhaps there's more to the world of magic than anyone is willing to tell her.
1. Chapter 1

"Be quiet, Nessa," the green girl said after her sister asked for the sixth time if they were there yet. The green girl was walking through King's Cross station with her family; Nessa, in a wheelchair being pushed by their Nanny; her brother, Shell, sitting on Nessa's lap; and her father, Frex, walking beside them.

"Don't talk to me like that, Elphaba," Nessa retorted, trying to keep Shell on her lap. "Are you absolutely sure you know where you're going?"

"School," was Elphaba's only reply. She was tired of Nessa asking her questions and as much as she loved her little sister, if only because she had to, she was annoyed by her. She studied the platform numbers carefully, she'd found 5 and 6 but couldn't seem to find any not whole numbers anywhere, much less the Platform 9 ¾ that she was looking for.

"If you really know where you're going Fabala, then will you be alright going alone?" her father asked, looking at the clock nearby. "Nessa's doctor's appointment is in half an hour and we can't be late."

"I'll be okay," Elphaba said, knowing Nessa's doctor's appointment was more important to her father than making sure that she got to school safely.

"Bye-bye, Effie," Shell said waving from Nessa's lap as Nanny and Frex turned to leave.

"Goodbye, Shell. I'll be back as soon as I can," Elphaba said waving to her brother and consequently her sister. When they were gone, she turned and looked around the station again. She set her small trunk down and sat on it, extremely confused about where in the station she was supposed to go.

"Momsie."

Elphaba turned to look when she heard a girl speak behind her. The girl she saw was a little taller than her, with blonde curls. She was standing with a woman and man who looked like her. The woman had an air of importance and authority, while the man seemed like he'd easily be at home, riding horses or making crucial trade deals. He was pushing a trolley that had a trunk, nearly twice the size of Elphaba's small one, and a light gray tabby cat with dark gray swirls sleeping on top of it.

"What platform are we going to again? Do I really have to go? I'll miss you so much."

"9 ¾ Galinda, darling, you know that. You were so excited when you got the letter. Do you really not want to go now?" The woman beside the girl said gently.

"I don't know momsie, what if I can't make any friends?" Galinda pulled on her mom's arm with worry.

"You'll make friends Galinda. I don't know anyone who wouldn't want to be friends with you. You had so many friends in primary school; I'm sure you'll do just fine."

Galinda smiled at her mom then turned to see if she could spot that number anywhere around and notice Elphaba watching them. "Momsie, she's green," she whispered then when Elphaba turned away shyly ran up to her. "Hi, I'm Galinda. Are you going to Hogwarts too?" It seemed to Elphaba like Galinda hadn't breathed at all while saying that.

"Well…I…" Elphaba stammered a little taken aback by how much energy this girl had. She'd been debating asking them if they could show her the way to the platform but now she was just sort of shocked by how unafraid of her this other girl was.

"Galinda, darling don't pester people," the girl's mom said walking up to them.

"She's not pestering me," Elphaba said quickly not wanting Galinda to get into any trouble. "I am going to Hogwarts. I just don't know how." The last part was said shyly as she looked down at her hands, almost ashamed to admit she didn't know where she was going when she'd told her father that she did. She didn't want anyone telling him she'd lied.

Galinda's mom took in the other girl's appearance then noticed that she was alone. "Where are your parents?"

"Papa had to leave, because Nessa, my sister, had a doctor's appointment. Mama died two years ago when my little brother Shell was born," Elphaba said, leaving out the part where she'd been in the room when that happened, because her mother hadn't been able to make it to the hospital. She didn't see any reason to lie, and leaving that part out wasn't really lying.

"So he just left you here in the train station alone?" Galinda's mom frowned. That didn't seem right. No child should be left alone just like that. They could end up vanishing and no one would know. She then noticed the small trunk that Elphaba was sitting on. It didn't look like it could hold everything first years were required to bring. "Do you have everything you need?"

Elphaba looked down at her small trunk then to Galinda's big one. "I have everything on the list," she said with a nod. "But I don't know if it's everything I need."

Galinda's mom frowned, "Are you sure you have everything? That's an awfully small trunk."

"I have everything," Elphaba said again with certainty. "Do you want to check?" She was simultaneously annoyed that Galinda's mom didn't believe her and happy that someone cared, she didn't get that very often.

"Do we have time for that Samion?" Galinda's mom asked looking to Galinda's dad.

"We do, the train doesn't leave for another 45 minutes," he said.

Elphaba hopped up off her trunk and let Galinda's mom search through it. She watched as she carefully went through each item having Galinda check it off the list and then smiled when she carefully put it all back.

"The only thing on the list you don't have is a pet, but that's optional," Galinda's mom said.

"You can share mine," Galinda said excitedly pointing at the cat on top of her trunk who just looked up and blinked at her. "His name's Thorn."

"You don't even know my name?" Elphaba said, it was a question, she didn't understand why this girl was so trusting of her when they'd only just met.

"Then tell me your name, silly," Galinda said with a chuckle. "That's how introductions work."

Elphaba smiled shyly. "I'm Elphaba."

"It's nice to meet you Elphaba," Galinda's mom said with a smile. "I'm Gwenot and this," she motioned to Samion "is Samion. You can call us Mrs. and Mr. Arduenna if you want."

"Can I call you Galinda's mom and dad?" Elphaba asked not quite sure she could pronounce their surname correctly if she tried.

"You can if you want," Gwenot said with a smile. "We should show you to the platform now. Since we're going there anyway."

Elphaba smiled and nodded. "I would really appreciate that," she said moving to pick up her trunk, but Gwenot picked it up first.

"Galinda, would you please take Thorn off your trunk for a moment?" she asked. Galinda practically bounced over and picked up Thorn and brought him over to Elphaba while her mom put Elphaba's trunk on top of hers. "You don't need to carry it, dear. It'd be easier if we put it on the trolley. Unless you want to carry it?" Gwenot smiled happily, trying to show Elphaba that she was only being nice.

Elphaba tried to work out in her head why these people who only just met her were being so nice, but she was having trouble with that so she just smiled and reached out to pet Thorn. "If you think it would be easier, then I don't mind not carrying it."

"What'll happen to sharing Thorn if you two get put in different houses?" Samion asked Galinda as they started walking through the station.

"We'll just have to share him in different rooms, sometimes he can sleep in my bed and sometimes Elphaba's."

"There's different houses?" Elphaba asked, sounding really concerned.

"You didn't know that?" Galinda asked. "Are you muggle born?"

"What's that mean?"

"It means your parents weren't magic, they were muggles."

"Oh, well not exactly," Elphaba said.

"The Thropps were a very prominent magical family years ago," Gwenot said, knowing that Galinda wasn't aware of that, and knowing that Elphaba probably didn't know quite how to explain it. "Pure bloods, the whole of the family. Tell me, was your mother Melena?" Elphaba just nodded. "Her mother, was a squib, the only non magical child in a family of purebloods, and she left. It was big news at the time, because it happened not too long after her sister died. I heard she married a muggle preacher. Is that true?"

"Yeah, papa's a preacher. He spends all his time that he's not fawning over Nessa telling people how God loves everyone even people who shouldn't exist, like me."

Gwenot stopped walking in shock. "He said that to you?"

"He said that about me, but I don't think he really means it. He'd say anything to get people to convert to his religion." Elphaba looked down for a moment. "I was supposed to be a boy. I should be a boy. I was born a girl by accident."

Galinda tilted her head and scratched Thorn's chin absentmindedly causing him to purr. Then she asked, "So are you a boy or are you a girl?"

"I'm not sure," Elphaba said confusedly. "They all say I'm a girl. I feel like I was supposed to be a boy, my mom said she thought her first child was going to be a boy."

"I'm sure you'll figure it out someday," Galinda said. "Hey, there's platform 9, and that's 10 next to it. Where are we supposed to go? There's only whole numbers."

Samion noticed a boy waiting by the column and said, "Wait here."

He walked over to the boy, who looked to be about 16 and seemed kind of bored. "Excuse me, young man," he said.

The boy looked up and smiled. "Yeah?" He ran a hand through his short black hair and hoped this man wasn't about to tell him off for loitering when he was waiting for his girlfriend to get back from the snack machine.

"Are you by chance going to Hogwarts?" Samion asked.

The boy nodded. "Yes, I am. I'm gonna be a Hufflepuff Prefect starting this year."

"Then I don't suppose you would mind showing two first years-" he motioned to Elphaba and Galinda "how to get to the platform. They're unsure how it works."

"Yeah, I can do that, if you're willing to wait a few minutes, I promised my girlfriend I'd wait for her."

"No problem," Samion said, then shook the boy's hand and walked back to the girls and his wife. "That boy said he's willing to show you two how it's done."

Elphaba and Galinda both nodded then Elphaba turned and looked at Gwenot. "Are you okay?"

"I'm just shocked that someone could actually say something like that about their child. Whether or not they meant it."

"I don't know if he was talking about my skin color, which is quite odd, or that I think I was supposed to be a boy. He's my papa and I love him, even if he doesn't love me."

"Elphaba, does your papa ever hurt you?"

"No? Papa is a good man."

"Hey, if you two are ready, I'm ready," the boy said walking over to them with a smiling girl with brown hair who was eating Doritos.

Elphaba and Galinda turned and looked at the boy and girl.

"What's your names?" Galinda asked.

"I'm Mark," he said. The girl just mumbled something and Mark chuckled. "That's Sue."

"I'm Galinda, and that's Elphaba," Galinda said happily. "Are you gonna show us where to go?"

"We are," Mark said. "Don't worry it's not as scary as it sounds. You're gonna want to run straight at the column that marks where 9 and 10 meet."

"But it's brick? Won't that hurt?" Elphaba asked.

"Nope, it only looks like brick. It's magically camouflaged," Mark said. "Sue would you demonstrate for them?"

Sue nodded and went back to the column to grab the trolley beside it. She placed her near empty Dorito bag on it and smiled. She then pushed the trolley over to the girls and said, "Watch."

Galinda and Elphaba watched as Sue lined up her trolley with the column and ran straight at it. Then to Galinda and Elphaba's surprise she passed through it.

"Momsie, she went through the wall!" Galinda squeaked.

"Well, it's not really a wall," Gwenot said, walking up to them.

"I don't understand," Galinda said. "If it's not a wall what is it?"

"A disguised gateway, like the one we passed through to get to Diagon Alley," Gwenot said.

"I'll go through now," Mike said. "If you need anything while on the train, just look for me, I'd be more than happy to help, but you'd best hurry. There's only 15 minutes before the train leaves, whether or not you're on it."

"Momsie," Galinda said as she watched Mike go through to the platform. "What do we do with our trunks when we're on the train?"

"Put them in your compartment," Gwenot said then nodded to Samion. "We'd best hurry now, wouldn't want either of you missing your train."

Samion nodded. "I'll go first, then you two, at the same time girls."

Elphaba nodded and Galinda smiled. They watched as Samion headed through to the platform then nodded at each other.

"It's now or never, I guess," Galinda said, when Elphaba simply nodded, Galinda took a deep breath counted to three and pulled Elphaba into a run with her and they passed through the wall, almost stumbling on the other side as they came to a stop on another train platform, crawling with people. Families were saying goodbye to their students, and students desperately trying to get onto the train without dropping their trunks or pets.

Gwenot followed closely after the girls and gently pushed them to move away from the entrance to the platform. Galinda, despite growing up in a magical family, was more astounded by the wonders of the platform than Elphaba was. Elphaba just kind of scooted a little closer to Galinda, overwhelmed by the sheer number of people, there had to be at least a thousand, she reasoned, and that was entirely too many in one spot. Elphaba wanted nothing more than to get on the train and find a seat but Galinda wanted to meet all the new people she could.

Elphaba was torn between going to the train and staying with Galinda. She wasn't even sure if Galinda thought of her as a friend or not, but she didn't want to be completely alone again, especially when all she knew about where she was going was that it was Hogwarts, a school of magic.

"Galinda," Gwenot said. "You can meet the others on the train."

Elphaba almost sighed in relief, she wasn't quite sure if Gwenot had said that for her benefit or because if she didn't Galinda would likely forget to get on the train at all.

"But momsie they're all out here," Galinda said almost whining.

"Galinda, darling. Trust me on this, get on the train now or there'll likely not be any more room for you."

"Elphaba can save me a seat, can't she?"

Elphaba tilted her head, surely Galinda wasn't arguing with her mom.

"Do you really want Elphaba to sit alone and wait for you?"

"I don't, but she does."

Elphaba didn't say anything, she wasn't quite sure if maybe that was just a magic thing she was missing out on, being able to hear what others were thinking. Or maybe it was a friend thing.

"Is that true, Elphaba?"

Elphaba nodded. "I'm not so good with large amounts of people."

"In that case you might want to go ahead onto the train," Gwenot said. "Take Samion with you, he'll help you with the trunks."

Samion nodded and smiling, held out a hand for Elphaba. "Would you like to go ahead onto the train?" he asked sweetly.

Elphaba nodded and switched from holding Galinda's hand to holding Samion's. "I'll save you a seat, Galinda."

Galinda smiled and headed off to find more people to try to make friends with, while Samion led Elphaba through the crowd and onto the train. Once she was up the steps he handed up her trunk, then carried Galinda's up himself. Elphaba looked around and after walking a short ways down the aisle found an empty compartment and smiled.

"Here," she said and stepped into the compartment, then moved over to the window and put her trunk under the seat. Samion followed her in and put Galinda's trunk under the seat on the opposite side.

"Will you be alright here alone?" he asked, very fatherly.

"Yeah, I should be fine. I may be little, but I can handle myself," Elphaba said with a smile. She was still very confused why he and Gwenot were being so nice to her, but she was afraid if she questioned it, they'd stop.

Samion smiled. "You should come say goodbye to Gwenot before the train leaves."

"She's not my mom though?" She was really confused now, and it was starting to bother her, _a lot._

"Elphaba have you ever had a friend before?"

Elphaba shook her head shyly. "Never."

Samion knelt down before Elphaba and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "If a friend has good parents then those parents will care about their child's friends as much as if they were their own children."

"But I don't understand."

Samion thought for a second then smiled when an idea hit him. "Well, if a child has good parents then those parents will be their child's friend's friend too."

"You're my friend too?" Elphaba thought about this, her brows a little furrowed in concentration, then she came to a conclusion. "But you're old."

Samion just chuckled. "That doesn't mean I can't be your friend."

"That's weird." She was smiling though. She'd figure this out, surely someone at Hogwarts could explain it better than he was.

"Try thinking of it like this, Elphaba. Gwenot and I care about you because we're caring people."

"So if I don't say goodby to her, she'll miss me worse? Because she's a caring person who cares?" That sounded really weird coming out of her mouth. "She barely knows me?"

"But it is enough," Samion said. "Gwenot, and probably Galinda too, is an intuit. They can sense things about people, they're particularly in tune to other people's feelings and general dispositions. She can sense that you're a good person."

"So is she gonna miss me either way?" Elphaba asked. She filed away that information to ask about at school, maybe there was a way she could become an intuit too. That sounded like fun.

"She'll miss you more if you don't tell her goodbye," Samion said with a firm nod.

"Then I'll come say goodbye to her, and you too. You'll miss me too. Right?" Elphaba asked. She made to follow Samion out as the train would be leaving in five minutes then she thought about it, turned back and took her trunk and put it on the seat so people would know this compartment was taken. After that she headed out with Samion to collect Galinda and say goodbye to Gwenot.

Galinda was hugging her mom when Samion stepped off the train. She then turned and hugged him tightly. "I'm gonna miss you popsicle."

"Send lots of letters," he said sweetly, hugging her back. "We'll send them too. We'll will miss you so much."

"Mrs. Galinda's mom?" Elphaba said quietly from the stairs onto the train. They all looked at her smiling. "I'm going to miss you too, even though I just met you."

"Elphaba, dear, you wouldn't mind if we sent you letters too would you?"

"I've never gotten a letter other than the Hogwarts one," Elphaba said. "But I wouldn't mind." Then she looked up at the clock and seeing they had only two minutes, hopped off the train, quickly hugged both Gwenot and Samion. Then she grabbed Galinda by the hand and pulled her gently up onto the steps of the train.

"I'm going to miss you both." She wondered if that was true, she'd never really had anyone to miss that she was going to see again. She thought perhaps it was, she knew she'd miss Shell. He may only be a toddler but he was way more fun than Nessa. So perhaps she would miss them too.

"Goodbye momsie. Goodbye popsicle," Galinda said, then the whistle blew and they hurried onto the train and into their compartment where they waved from the window until they couldn't see the platform anymore.


	2. Chapter 2

Galinda sat back in her seat and sighed. It was hard to believe she wouldn't be seeing her mom and dad again until December. She wasn't quite sure what was harder to believe honestly, that she wouldn't be seeing her mom and dad again until December or that she'd felt what Elphaba had been thinking on the platform. She really wondered why she'd been able to feel Elphaba's thoughts when she'd never really felt anyone else's thoughts before.

Galinda stared at Elphaba trying to decide if there was anything else special about her, other than her color. Elphaba was staring out the window, she seemed to be thinking. Then after a second of thought, she blinked and looked straight at Galinda.

"You're staring," Elphaba said. She didn't seem at all put off by that fact. "Which is more fascinating: my color or my size?"

Galinda jumped a little when Elphaba spoke, now that they were alone in a small space, Elphaba's voice seemed a slight bit deeper, very slight. She only noticed it because it made Elphaba sound a little older than she was. She wasn't sure what the correct answer was. What the polite answer was. "I was trying to figure out what house you'll be in."

"Tell me about them please?" Elphaba said pleasantly. "I'm curious and I probably should know a little about them before I actually get there."

"There's four houses in the school. The fairest way to list them is alphabetically: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. These four houses were founded centuries ago by the four greatest witches and wizards of their time: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. Each of these founders created their house wanting to teach a certain type of student: Godric wanted to teach only the bravest, those with the courage to stand up for whatever they believed in whether or not it was right; Rowena wanted to teach only the brightest, the ones with the best and most open minds; Salazar wanted to reach only pure-bloods and the cunningly ambitious, those with not only the blood status he preferred but also the drive to do what was necessary to achieve the ends of their goals, whatever those goals may be; Helga did not value a particular trait in her students, instead she decided to take in and teach the kind-hearted and fair-minded, those who are loyal and true, the ones who'd give a stranger the shirt off their back if it meant the stranger would no longer be cold, those who are there for any and everyone, she valued friendship and kindness above all."

"How do we know what houses we're in?"

"The sorting hat," a voice from the door said.

They both jumped slightly, neither having noticed that there was anyone there. When they turned and looked they saw a boy, already in his robes emblazoned with the Hufflepuff crest and wearing a yellow and black tie, smiling at them. "Mind if I sit for a moment?"

Elphaba looked at his eyes, something struck her as slightly off about them. They seemed almost impossibly cloudy blue. It was rather beautiful. If not, slightly, different. Like her, like Nessa. Like a lot of the kids in the school she'd gone to before. Like a lot of those kids, the thought came across Elphaba's mind, that he was probably blind. "Are you blind?" she asked before she could stop herself. Then she immediately regretted asking, she thought it sounded rude. "I'm sorry. You can sit. We don't mind. Right, Galinda?"

"Right, we don't mind at all."

The boy chuckled. "I'm Avril. And yes, I am blind, you're the first first-year I've met this train ride who didn't have to be told." He walked in and took a seat in the seat beside Galinda.

Elphaba noticed that he was rhythmically tapping the air with his wand, which he was holding closer to the tip than what she assumed normal spells called for. She thought maybe he was doing some sort of spell, but felt like it'd be intruding to ask, so she filed it away as something to look up at school, whenever she had the time.

"Can you tell us about the Sorting Hat?" Galinda asked, she didn't want to ask the question on both her and Elphaba's mind, if the tapping he was doing with his wand was a spell helping him 'see' or not?

"The Sorting Hat belonged to Godric Gryffindor," Avril said with a slight smile. He could tell they were deliberately not asking the questions they really wanted to, and that made him happy, it showed they cared for others as well as themselves. "The founders originally handpicked the students that would be in their houses. They worried that when they died no one would properly pick the houses the students would be in, so Godric enchanted the hat and 'gave it a brain' and the hat has picked the students houses ever since then."

"How does the hat do that?" Elphaba asked. Galinda was pondering what house the hat would put her in and didn't stop to think how the hat made the decision.

"The hat chooses your house based on what traits you value, not necessarily the ones you show or possess, unless the hat feels you could do great things in that house. The only exception is Slytherin."

"How so?"

"Slytherins, are the only house where if you doubt even for a second that you belong there when the hat is considering your placement, you will not be placed there. The hat reasons a true Slytherin would never doubt for a second that they belong in that house."

"Is the hat ever wrong?"

"People have wondered in the past if the hat maybe placed them in the wrong house. But, those people were almost always wrong. The hat saw they had the potential to show and value the traits that house values most. There have been some people put into houses that were only placed there because of how highly they valued people who showed those traits, they didn't really belong in those houses, and most of them never doubted the house they were in was the right one, even if the traits the possessed were of other houses. I cannot say for sure if in those cases the hat was wrong. The hat has it's reasons."

Elphaba tilted her head and considered this. "What house are you in?"

"I'm a third year Hufflepuff."

"How did that happen?"

"Professor McGonagall put the hat on my head and it thought for a moment and figured out that I value friendship, kindness, fairness and caring above all then called out 'Hufflepuff!' to let everyone know what house I was in."

"It's that simple?"

"For most."

"Most?"

"Some people are hat-stalls."

"Hat-stalls?" Elphaba seemed to consider this for a moment. This all seemed really hard to believe, but she supposed, they'd be better knowing, most first-years probably didn't.

"Hat-stalls." He nodded, like it was kind of obvious, but was more than happy to explain it. "It takes the hat longer to decide for some people, McGonagall told my class once that she was a hat-stall herself. Sometimes people could belong in two houses equally, but that's not really possible, so the hat has to decide, and it asks the person for help. Asks them which they would prefer, sometimes people even argue with the hat for a minute or two because they don't think they'd fit in in whatever house the hat wanted to put them in."

"Do hat-stalls happen often?"

"I'm not sure," Avril said.

Elphaba nodded unsure of if Avril could tell that she was nodding and returned to thought momentarily.

"Avril!" a voice in the corridor called. "Where'd you go man? Are you still scaring first-years by saying Hogwarts will make you hear voices? I've told a hundred times it's the ghosts, you're not hearing things!"

Avril chuckled and called back. "I'm in here, talking about the sorting ceremony."

A head poked into the compartment, a girl who looked exactly like Avril. "Well, Fiyero asked me to lead him to you. So here." The girl stepped back and gently pushed a little dark skinned boy, who was also already in his robes, into the compartment. "Make friends," she whispered to him, then to Avril said. "I'm going back to our compartment now. If you get hungry, just buy off the trolley, I'm not bringing you the sandwich mum packed for you. I'm going to eat it myself. Have fun." Then she was gone.

Fiyero stood there shyly for a moment then walked over and sat beside Elphaba.

"Did I say you could sit there?" Elphaba asked, startled out of her thoughts when he sat down. He squeaked and started to move, but she shook her head. "Don't go."

He didn't say anything for a moment, then eyeing Galinda and noticing she was staring at him, said, "Will you two be my friends?"

"You're even more awkward than me," Elphaba said.

"Sorry?" he squeaked confused

"I'll be your friend," Elphaba said. "Even though I have no idea how to be a friend."

Galinda kept staring for a moment then piped up, "I'll be your friend, if you first explain the diamonds."

"Rite of passage," he said. "In my mother's tribe, we're not from here if you couldn't tell from my color, the young males are marked with diamonds when they reach the age of being magically accepted. Within the tribe it is at a different age. They must have mastered at least eight spells first. When we moved here I was only two. Myma, my mother, decided when I got my letter I deserved to be considered magically accepted and let me get my diamonds. I chose blue because Myma said it stood for prophetic magic. And prophecies are very well respected in our tribe."

"That's so cool," Galinda said, her eyes shining with admiration. "Did it hurt?"

"At first. But then Myma enchanted them to stop the pain, also to change color should I end up focusing on a different branch of magic," he said.

Avril smiled. "You have an interesting story and life, Fiyero. Anna said you wanted to find me. Why?"

"I meant to ask if you really meant what you said."

"Which that I said?"

"That you could teach me how to do what you do. To see with magic. I want to teach my uncle, he is the tribe's healer. He does not know how to help the blind ones in the tribe. If I learn to do that, I can teach him and they will be helped."

"That is an admirable ambition. Of course I can teach you, but not now. I myself didn't master it until second year," Avril said with a nod. "Be sure to tell your uncle it won't help the blind see ghosts. It just doesn't work on them."

"Of course," Fiyero said with a nod.

"How long does it take to get to this school?" Elphaba asked. She was tired from Shell keeping her up all night and was wondering if she had time for a nap.

"Ten hours," Avril said. "We've been travelling for an hour and a half."

"Okay," Elphaba said then leaned against the window and closed her eyes. "I'm going to take a nap."

A few hours later, Elphaba woke up to see Fiyero and Avril gone, and Galinda standing in the door arguing with someone.

"For the last time, if all you're going to do is make fun of her, then you can't sit with me!"

"I thought you were our friend."

"I could be, but I don't make friends with bullies!"

"You've got a storm coming, then. Do you really think the other students at Hogwarts are just going to ignore her? Heaven forbid she end up a snake. She'd be their mascot, then no one will want to talk to her."

"You're wrong. And I'll prove it to you!"

"How?"

"I bet by the end of the year she'll have more real friends than you ever will!"

"What is with all the yelling?" A prefect asked walking up to and stepping between them to keep the disagreement from turning into a fist fight.

"They wanted to make fun of my friend," Galinda said

"Your friend is a freak. No one will ever love her."

The prefect put his hand on Glinda's shoulder to keep her from hitting the other girls. "I suggest you go back to your compartment before I decide to send an owl ahead to the school and tell the professors what kind of trouble you've gotten into on the train."

The other girls grumbled but left.

"Don't worry, Galinda," Elphaba said from her seat. "I'm not going to be a snake. I'm a person not an animal."

"I think they meant if you ended up in Slytherin, Elphaba. Slytherin's mascot is the snake."

"Why would I end up in Slytherin? Is it because I'm green? If so that's racist."

"You know what racism is?"

"I'm sure Fiyero knows better than I do, but yes. I'm very smart Galinda. If there's something I don't know I look and read and ask questions until I do know."

The prefect nodded. "I think you're more likely to be a Ravenclaw." he stepped past Galinda carefully and smiled at Elphaba. "My name is Thomas, and I'm a Ravenclaw Prefect."

"What does that mean? That Hufflepuff boy Mike, he had that badge too."

"Roughly it means we're in charge. We can punish students who break the rules and reward ones that do well. It's mostly based on a point example, when a student answers a question their house is rewarded with points usually between one and five, when a student breaks the rules their house loses points usually either five or ten, but depending on the severity or the broken rule sometimes as many as 50 points can be lost at once, per student."

"So on a ladder, you'd be above the students but under the teachers?"

"There's two students above us, The Head Boy and The Head Girl."

"How many prefects are there?"

"Six per house."

Elphaba nodded thoughtfully. "How much longer til we get to the school? I want to see the library."

"You'll have to wait on that," Thomas said.

'Why?" Elphaba asked with as much determination as her tired brain could come up with.

"Well when we get to the school the first thing is the sorting ceremony, then the welcome dinner. Then like it or not, everyone goes to bed," he said.

"But I want to see the library," Elphaba said almost whining.

"Elphaba, surely you must be tired," Galinda said.

"You can see the library tomorrow. We don't get to Hogwarts until 9 pm and no one is allowed to wander the corridors at night."

"You're Ravenclaw?" Elphaba said thoughtfully. "If I was Ravenclaw too, would you show me the library?"

"Sure thing," Thomas said. He then glanced at his watch. "We arrive in two hours. I suggest you both change into your robes. I have to go now."

Elphaba and Galinda both waved goodbye to him. Then Elphaba opened up her trunk and pulled out one set of her robes. They looked like they'd be too big for her, and honestly they probably were, her dad hadn't exactly made sure she was buying things that would actually fit her. He actually made her buy her robes second hand, in fact everything but her cauldron and wand were second hand.

Galinda did the same after moving Thorn to be lying on the seat instead of beside her trunk. Her robes were new. She was proud of how nice they looked when she put them on, but she didn't say anything because she didn't want to make Elphaba feel bad about her own robes.

Elphaba slipped her robes on over her other clothes then sighed when she looked down and noticed how much too big on her they were. "I don't get it," she said sadly. "They said this was the smallest size they had second hand. They're bigger than yours."

"It's okay Elphaba," Galinda said. "Take them off."

Elphaba tilted her head confused but did just that. Then Galinda pulled one of her other sets of robes out of her trunk, took the name tag off and handed them to Elphaba. "Try mine."

Elphaba pulled Galinda's robes on and smiled when they were only a little too big. "They fit better," she said with a smile even though that was obvious.

Galinda switched the name tags and put the robes that Elphaba had taken off into her own trunk.

"Their yours now," Galinda said. "Don't worry."

Elphaba smiled at Galinda no one was ever that nice to her. "I should do something for you too."

"You don't have to Elphaba. Not now."

Elphaba almost responded, but as the train started slowing to a stop she stumbled a little then said, "I think we're here."


End file.
